A rifle-toting gunman shot and killed eight people in a department store in a busy Omaha, Neb., shopping mall on Wednesday before taking his own life.

A rifle-toting gunman shot and killed eight people in a department store in a busy Omaha, Neb., shopping mall on Wednesday before taking his own life. At least five people were wounded, two of them critically.

The carnage erupted at the 1.2 million-square-foot Westroads Mall on the city’s west side, which has three levels and more than 135 stores and restaurants, according to the Web site of General Growth Properties, which manages the mall. The shopping center has an average of 14.5 million visitors annually and is the largest in Nebraska.